Lulu's Weight Loss and Fitness Blog

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

The Doctor Oz 3 Day Detox entails drinking three to four juices a day plus taking omega three and a multi-vitamin. The details are listed in the website below:

http://www.doctoroz.com/article/dr-ozs-3-day-detox-cleanse-one-sheet

I wanted to give this a try since I am trying to lose weight-you can lose up to four pounds during the three days. But mostly I wanted to see if the hype was true that we have toxins stored up in our bodies. I had been feeling tired and feeling under the weather, having no type of energy and the such.

It is best to get all of the ingredients ahead of time. I had most-and all for the breakfast shake. One day one I had the breakfast shake and went to run some errands with my daughter before hitting the grocery store. My daughter suggested we get some lunch. So I pulled into the nearest 5 Guys. Not a great start. So decided to restart Day 1 on the next day. I did make the lunch shake and had that for my dinner. However, woke up hungry around midnight and had a bowl of ice cream.

After starting over on Day 1 (the second one) things went smoother. I feel that the shakes keep me full and the lunch one has some many ingredients that I don't need a snack shake. The only thing I decided to do was to include a regular meal for dinner, which consists of a meat and sometimes a small potato. Even with this change I do feel like I have more energy and have lost two pounds.

Q. Was it hard?

All it takes is some food preparation and this usually takes 10 to twenty minutes. I have one of those nutri bullets and it is excellent for juicing. When I make my lunch shake I make my dinner shake ahead of time and keep it in the fridge.

Q. Was it difficult to find the ingredients? And how much was it?

Most-if not all of the ingredients can be found at your local grocery store. It promises that all the ingredients would cost no more than $16 a day. I did get a majority of the ingredients at my local Price Rite-which is similar to Aldi's and Save-A-Lot. I also purchased frozen fruit instead of fresh. I saved money that way. I also have my mulit-vitamins and Omega 3-S at home. If you need to buy these plus purchase a blender or bullet, it will cost more. But it is a good investment for future detox. I do a lot of comparison shopping. Like I said I purchased frozen fruit-raspberries and blueberries=and cut the price in half. I have no problem purchasing a store brand compared to a brand name. I think after I got everything I needed, I spent about $43. It would have been about $93 if I needed to get the bullet. Then about $20-30 more if I needed to get the multi-vitamin and Omega 3S, There you have to comparison shpt. Some pharmacies offer a buy 1 get 1 free deal.

Q. Were they easy to make?

Yes! When I first got that Bullet for Christmas, I was afraid that I would burn the motor out-like I do on my blenders. I did use a little caution by slicing up the celery rather than throwing the stalks in it. So I don't overwork my Bullet, I blend a few ingredients before I add more. I just need to have some liquid in it so it blends easily. After you prepare the ingredients, it takes less than a minute of blending.

Q. Were you hungry throughout the day?
Well after that first Day 1 epic fail, I have not had much problem. The breakfast drink is not as filling and sometimes was hungry by the time I got to the lunch juice. Other than that, the other juices kept me full. Since I mentioned I eat a small dinner, I wasn't hungry for the dinner juice. But it was helpful when I woke up in the middle of the night-I do have a problem sleeping through the night because I work nights.

Q. How did they taste

For me the breakfast drink and dinner drinks tasted the best. The lunch drink was good too. I do prefer fruits to vegetables and the lunch drink contains mostly vegetables with some apple and pineapple to give it a good taste.

Q. How did they make you feel?

It did make me feel a little tired and did have a small headache on the first two "real" days. But that was because I was staying away from coffee and sticking to detox tea. So those headaches may have been from withdrawal from caffeine. I haven't been craving sweets-but maybe that is because I am including a regular meal for dinner.

Q. Did it "clean you out"?

I did not have to run to the bathroom many times. I did urinated more than have bowel movements. I do have a bowel movement once a day-and they are not loose stools. The one thing I notice-and this may be too much information-is that my pooh is green. That is from the kale and spinach and berries. But I guess it does play a role in removing toxins.

Q. Did you lose weight?

About two pounds. Maybe 3 by tomorrow. I just have to get into a healthy diet to keep it off.

Q. What was the biggest challenge?

Getting side-tracked. I can be distracted easily by a television show or the Internet, that I miss my noon-time feeding. On my second day 1, I didn't have my lunch drink until almost three in the afternoon.

Q. Would you do it again?

Absolutely! I am thinking of doing it once a month or even picking a day once a week to do a cleanse. Even adding a juice to the daily diet will be beneficial. I am going to research other cleansing juices.

Monday, March 10, 2014

I just weighed myself and I am down to 159.3 pounds. It’s been at least six months and maybe a year since I have been under 160 pounds. So I am making progress. It was during the first half of January when I decided that I wanted to lose weight. I think it was when, all of a sudden, my pants were too tight on me.

A lot of it were the unhealthy eating habits, such as grabbing a pastry from the vending machine to keep my hunger pains at bay and not eating a healthy breakfast. Since I also work night shift, it is hard to get into a normal routine.

I started out by having more fruits, having more fiber in my diet and eliminating the junk food. On my breaks at work, I really only have 10-20 minutes to eat. Instead of trying to cram everything into my mount in one sitting. I try to eat something on each break. The one thing I realize is that even though I still feel hungry after I eat, if I wait a little I won’t be hungry. I think it is because my brain has not been told that I had eaten and it is still processing.

It took a while to take the first couple pounds off-I averaged about a half pound a week. It was taking time for my body to adjust. Now it seems that it is coming off faster. Mood wise, I feel good. At first I was tired and it did, when I started breaking it down to eating several times a day, that I was always hungry. That too has improved. Your body still needs time to adjust. But it is important to not give up.
Okay now for the meal plan (I hope to get enough of these posted so people can organize them and make a two week plan for themselves):

Friday, March 7, 2014

I just weighted myself and I am down to 161.3 pounds. At least I am going in the right way.

Tip: when you are weighing yourself, set a certain time to do this each day. Your weight fluctuates at different times during the day. I usually weigh myself right when I wake up. That is when I am the lightest. If I weigh myself before I go to bed, my weight is a little higher.

This article gives a gives a good reason why we tend to weigh more at night than when we wake up:

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

The key to losing weight is not just eating three times a day. You have to include snacks throughout the day-sensible ones of course. If you just eat the three meals, the chances are that you will be hungry in between meals and get cranky. That is why many people do not succeed.

I am going to be listing different meal plans, the ones that usually work for me. With my weight, I have to consume 1400-1600 calories in order to lose one pound a week. However, I can allow more when I put in a good workout.

I will be listing my breakfast, lunch and snacks for the day. They do not have to be in any order. I just eat them when I feel hungry. I will not list the dinner because my husband sometimes does the cooking and whenever I try to cook something healthy for dinner, hubby protests (Lol). But usually for dinner, it is a meat, a vegetable and a small potato. Not a lot of variety because he is picky.

I have used cookbooks (such as The south Beach Diet) as a guideline for the menu. The only thing I do that is different is I do not make something different for each day. It is too time consuming and a waste of money if one day I have an apple and the next another piece of fruit, for example. If I buy a bag of apples and only have one a week, the fruit is going to get spoiled before I am done with a bag. So I will use a certain food item in the meal plan for a few days.

This is the menu I am starting out with. I will add more as I continue.

2 eggs
1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
! slice fat free sodium free deli turkey-shredded
Ground Basil
Ground Pepper
Whisk eggs in a bowl. Heat oil in a small frying pan over medium heat. Add eggs. When eggs are almost set, layer turkey over half of the omelet. Sprinkle pepper and basil on the other half. Fold one half over the other half. Cook for 1-2 minutes more until done.

Healthy Water

Sliced Orange
Sliced Kiwi
Slice Lemon/or Tablespoon Lemon Juice

Fill a pitcher with water-it can both be spring water or mineral water-and put the fruit slices in it. Refrigerate for at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine raisins and cinnamon in a bowl and mix. Stuff the raisin/cinnamon into the hollowed out apples. Stand upright in a pan and add one inch water. Bake 30-40 minutes, until they are soft. Allow to cool for at least 5 minutes.

I did the Jillian Michaels 6 Week six-Pack program. Overall it is not bad there are some exercises that are a little hard. For example, the side planks are difficult because it requires a lot of upper body strength so I have to modify it to be a little more comfortable for me. I also should invest in wrist guards and maybe knew pads because these are what usually get to me.

Well, the way this program runs you are to do Level One for three weeks and then switch to Level 2 for another 3 weeks. You have to do the program five days a week. Even though it is only a 30 minute workout, it might be hard with my work schedule especially if I work overtime. I am sure if I was not working, I would be able to easily incorporate it into my daily workout. What I may have to do is reserve Jillian’s workout for my days off. When I complete 15 workouts, then I will move on to Level 2 and do 15 more workouts. It will take me longer than 6 weeks. However, if I stick with it, I should have the same results if I completed the program in 6 weeks. Even if they are not six pack abs, I am very sure I will be satisfied with the results.

Another thing about me, I get bored easily. I think for me it would be better to use a variety of ab/workout routines. I noticed this the other day I went to Planet Fitness. I was lifting at one of the machines and said to myself, “this is getting boring.” Even though on some of the machines I am lifting more than when I started, I am afraid I am going into the same habit when I started Planet Fitness. I stopped going because I could not motivate myself to go. It might be the same with the Jillian Michaels program. If I try to do the workout each day, I might not complete the program. So I am looking into other routines, such as using the free weights.

Monday, March 3, 2014

One day 1 I did sets on 3, 4, 3, 3 and 5 sit ups with a minute rest between each set.
Today it was 5, 6, 5, 5, 6. It was only a few more sit ups but it seemed like it was a hundred more. So I will repeat day 2 on my next workout. When it gets easier, I will move on. I am not sure why I was off today. I am trying to do this challenge every other day like it is suggested. Maybe it was because I worked last night and my body might be tired while I feel fine. I just would rather do the workout before I go to sleep so I do not “forget” about it when I wake up.

I am thinking that I might still try the Jillian Michaels workout. At first I thought the video was over an hour long. But since the first three week are for Level 1, the workout is about 35-40 minutes. Some of the exercises are hard for me, but I can modify it and even try to do it since it will get easier.